Tell Abu Hureyra Neolithic Settlement

Tell Abu Hureyra, located in Syria's Euphrates valley, was inhabited from approximately 11,500 to 7,000 BCE. The settlement began as a hunter-gatherer community that hunted gazelle and gathered wild plants. Around 10,800 BCE, following climate changes during the Younger Dryas period that reduced wild food sources, inhabitants began cultivating cereals. The population grew from hundreds to thousands of inhabitants. Andrew Moore and team excavated the site in 1972-1973 before Lake Assad submerged it, providing data on early agriculture and settlement development.